Generally speaking, you should avoid resorting to easy symbolism when it comes to eulogizing a man of stature and achievement. In the case of Bowie Kuhn, however, it works pretty darned well.

We speak specifically of Oct. 17, 1976, Game 2 of the World Series and an arctic night in Cincinnati. Kuhn, a staunch advocate of the prime time World Series game — this was just the 15th ever played — sat preposterously in shirtsleeves as if he were enjoying a June afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

That may not describe the essence of the man, who died Thursday at the age of 80. But it is the perfect comment on the 15-plus years he spent as the commissioner of baseball.

Kuhn was a man of principle, virtue and ideals. Those are desirable qualities. They just happened to be a half-generation past their sell-by date when he was elected commissioner — a compromise candidate to the deadlocked Chub Feeney and Michael Burke — on Feb. 4, 1969.

The world was in a full-throated uproar at that time. Kuhn, who as a kid worked inside the manually operated scoreboard at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., found himself confronted by the Age of Aquarius. There were forces afoot he had no hope of controlling, and he struggled against most of them.

That night in Cincinnati was pure metaphor. For what it’s worth, Kuhn had the right idea. “Monday Night Football” was already a prime time staple. It only made sense for baseball to put its signature event under the lights. But wow, was that a cold night. Kuhn tried to deny the inconveniently obvious, with predictable results. He was ridiculed as a Pollyanna, and he never shook the image.

Other fruitless battles were more tangible. Kuhn had barely warmed his office chair when he was beset by labor issues. In 1970, Curt Flood sued to strip baseball of its reserve clause, which bound a player to his team in perpetuity if the team so desired. Kuhn won the first court battle, but genie was leaking out of the bottle.

Two years later, the season was delayed two weeks by a player walkout. In 1975, players were granted the right to free agency. In 1981, of course, the first in-season strike brought the game to a standstill for almost two months. Kuhn stood by more-or-less idly as the game’s credibility burned. It was clear he was no match for players union chief Marvin Miller.

Kuhn’s battles with A’s owner Charlie Finley were something of a mixed bag. When second baseman Mike Andrews made two errors in Game 2 of the 1973 World Series, Finley tried to remove him from the postseason roster on a bogus injury claim. Kuhn rightfully denied the move.

Three years later Finley attempted to sell Joe Rudi, Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue as a pre-emptive move against the onset of free agency. Kuhn wrongly blocked the moves, citing “the best interests of baseball.” At the end of the ’76 season, a battalion of A’s stars — Rudi and Fingers included — left the A’s as free agents. The team was decimated. Whose best interests did that serve?

Kuhn ordered Braves manager Eddie Mathews to play Henry Aaron early in the 1974 season, when it appeared the Braves were attempting to manage events so Aaron would break Babe Ruth’s home run record at home. Aaron sat anyway. When he broke the record in Atlanta, Kuhn, weakly, was nowhere to be found.

His suspension of Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle for taking public relations jobs with New Jersey casinos — after their playing days were over — was wrong-headed high-mindedness. One of Peter Ueberroth’s first acts as Kuhn’s successor was to overturn the bans.

At the end of Kuhn’s run as commissioner, it could be rightfully pointed out that attendance, revenue and player salaries had increased dramatically on his watch. Those were prosperous times. Sports was an uber-growth industry. In fact, baseball was the only major professional team sport in North America that wasn’t challenged by a rival league during the 1970s.

Explosive growth was practically inevitable. It was driven by economics and star power, not by administrative stoicism. You want to give Kuhn credit for something? Give him his due for giving lifetime passes to the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran during a 14-month period from 1979-80. That was inspired.

The rest? You don’t want to diminish the 15 years a man showed up for work with the best of intentions and manned his post the best he could. For many of us, however, Kuhn will forever be the man in the short-sleeved shirt, the guy marching doggedly in the right direction, a half step behind the events of the day.

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